Multipanel or so-called sectional garage doors and the like have been developed with panel edge profiles between adjacent door panels which are adapted to minimize pinching a person's fingers between the panels when the door moves to a closed position. Although various configurations of door panels with pinch resistant edge profiles are known in the prior art, there has been a continuing need to provide an improved sectional door construction wherein a pinch resistant edge profile is provided between adjacent door panels or sections while satisfying other desiderata in the construction, assembly and operation of multipanel or sectional upward acting garage doors, in particular.
One improvement which has been sought in the development of sectional upward acting doors is the provision of door panels which may be fabricated economically while providing a suitable shape or profile of the upper and lower edges of the panels to minimize the chance of pinching a person's fingers between adjacent panels at the outer or inner side of the door during movement of the panels between door open and closed positions.
Another problem which has not been satisfactorily solved by prior art sectional door designs is the provision of a panel configuration, with or without a pinch resistant edge profile, which also provides for minimizing or eliminating hinge parts which project from the plane of the inner side of the door panel. Accordingly, there has been a need and desire to provide sectional doors wherein the door panels may be stored and shipped to an installation site as substantially flat panels without irregular thickness caused by hinge members or guide member support parts projecting from the plane of the panels.
Still further, there has been a need to provide sectional door assemblies wherein the door panels may be easily connected to each other during assembly of the door at its installation site. In this regard, it has also been deemed desirable to provide for hinge assemblies for interconnecting adjacent door panels wherein the hinge leaves may be easily connected to each other and wherein the hinge leaves may be preassembled to the respective panels, if desired, prior to shipment of the door to the installation site. Furthermore, it has been deemed desirable to provide panel guide member support brackets which permit substantially lateral assembly of the panels between the door guide tracks.
Other desiderata in the art of sectional upward acting doors have been provided by the present invention, as will be appreciated by those skilled in the art upon reading the detailed description which follows in conjunction with the drawing.